The economies of owning an aircraft

[Guest basscheffers]

A friend of mine in the Netherlands recently bought a GA aircraft for his own use and put it on-line for hire and training at a school/hire & fly/scenic flight operation. They take care of maintenance, bookings, etc. and he just lets them know when he want to use it himself. At the end of the month he receives the balance - the plan is for this to break even so he is able to fly for little money himself. This seems to be the normal course there.

 

Is that something that is done in Oz also? Does anyone here do it? Seems like a great way for operators to have planes available without capital investment and for owners to be able to justify their ownership. (i.e.: buying a $100K+ plane and fly it only 100 hours a year doesn't seem to make a whole lot of sense compared to a $140/hour wet rate for hire & fly.)

 

It is certainly something I would considering doing in the future, if it is an acceptable thing to do here and those doing it say it makes sense and get a reasonable return.

 

I'd love to hear more experienced people's opinions on this!

 

 

[youngmic]

A mate does the same thing hear in Oz with a RAAus type and after 2 years it is doing very well.

 

The secret appears to be in the ability to find a very good school who can generate the use and look after it.

 

 

[Guest basscheffers]

I'd be interested in finding out more about this if you wouldn't mind asking your friend! For instance, I haven't got a clue what insurance, maintenance, etc. costs are. I really can't find anything about the cost of owning and operating an aircraft privately, let alone having it on-line!

 

Any owner/operators want to chime in? It would be good to have a guide to all of this stuff, hopefully it could be compiled in a tutorial/FAQ type document to be hosted here. I think it would be of great value to everyone!

 

Cheers,

 

Bas.

 

 

[youngmic]

I suspect the best starting point is to talk/meet with all the flying schools within an achievable radius of where you live to determine if there is a need or interest in such a proposal.

 

As for an off the shelf business/economic model this would be something you would need to do yourself as each scenario will be different. Suffice to say that a very simple rule off thumb for machinery operating costs is cost of fuel and then double it, and add bank cost to that.

 

Aviation businesses can be fickle, you need to develop a nose for what is a good or bad thing, RAaus offers a much less risky opportunity than it's GA equivalent.

 

Good luck